The aim of this ARRA proposal for NIDCD P30-supported new faculty recruitment at the University of Wisconsin (UW) - Madison is to foster the development of a leader in the field of voice and swallow neuroscience research. We will develop the career of an outstanding biomedical researcher in the area of communication sciences and disorders, Dr. Michelle Ciucci, by providing two years of salary support, lab space, start up funding, and protected research time. Our institution has committed to four additional years of support and a tenure-track faculty position for Dr. Ciucci. Upon receipt of funding, Dr. Ciucci will begin her appointment on or before September 30, 2009 as a tenure-track Assistant Professor. She will transition from her current appointment as a NIH-funded Postdoctoral Fellow to have a joint tenure-track appointment in the Departments of Communicative Disorders and Surgery (Division of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery), with Communicative Disorders representing her tenure home. The College of Letters and Science at the UW-Madison, which is the applicant institution/organizational unit, is supportive of this hire and has made a strong institutional commitment to continued support of Dr. Ciucci's position. Without funds from this ARRA supported PSO, Dr. Ciucci's hire would not be possible. With funds from this award, we will expand the community of multidisciplinary researchers at the UW-Madison to include this promising young scholar whose career is clearly on an upward trajectory. Dr. Ciucci will concentrate her efforts on basic and translational voice and swallowing research with a focus in voice/swallowing neuroscience. Our goal is to enhance and extend current voice and swallowing research at the UW-Madison by developing the independent research of an extraordinary new faculty member in the area of voice and swallowing neuroscience. This new faculty hire will develop an independent research program that will fill a significant gap in expertise at the UW-Madison in basic and translational research concerning the neuroscience of voice and swallowing. The discovery of underlying mechanisms and effective treatments for central nervous system based communication and swallowing impairments is highly relevant to the 2009-11 NIDCD strategic plan. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This P30 grant award will greatly enhance translational voice and swallowing research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This award offers Dr. Michelle Ciucci, an outstanding new investigator, the opportunity to begin an independent program of research with a high likelihood of yielding meaningful findings related to an important clinical issue.